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Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth makes its numbered return since Legends of the Titan released back in 2013 for North American 3DS owners and brings with it a fresh new outlook while retaining the series’ staple of creating your own characters and telling yet another story of Yggdrasil, for better or for worse. While I’m a firm believer that Etrian Odyssey is one of the best dungeon RPGs around, if not the one currently leading the pack, Etrian Odyssey V also reminds me that while the classic mode is perfectly fine, the lack of any significant story makes for an overall grindy and unrewarding experience that doesn’t have exciting enough gameplay to make up for it.

A new month is here! We just entered October this week, so that means we want to know what you’ve been playing.

Have you started up something entirely new for the month? With all of the new indies on Switch, have you given any of them or a try? Or maybe you’re starting up Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions, which launched yesterday. Whatever the case, let us know in the comments below!

Highlights from last week’s topic: Do you care about Switch home menu icons?

After a two-year hiatus, the Nintendo World Championships are back. Nintendo will be hosting the 2017 event today, with the proceedings beginning not too long from now. The tournament should kick off at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET / 10 PM in the UK / 11 PM in Europe.

You can watch the Nintendo World Championships as the event happens below. We’re not saying there will be any announcements (there may very well be nothing), but if anything happens to show up, we’ll have the news on the site.

For many of us, Mario titles were the games we fell in love with growing up. Whether you were raised on the NES, N64, or even playing the more recent releases like Super Mario 3D World on Wii U, it’s likely you have some fond memories. For me, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was that game. I remember the very concept of having a game this large in my pocket with me everywhere I went fascinated me all that time ago, and to hear that Nintendo is finally looking back on it with a glorious remodel filled my heart with joy. As someone who has already completed Superstar Saga several times over, I was a bit concerned about this new look being enough to buckle me in for a revisit. Yet thanks to some new additions, a trip down memory lane was definitely worth it.

One of the big highlights from the most recent Nindies Showcase was the announcement of Yono and the Celestial Elephants for Switch. And you won’t have to wait long to play it. It was announced during the same Nindies Showcase that Yono launches on October 12, meaning it’s just a few days away.

Ahead of the release, we caught up with Niklas Hallin from Neckbolt to learn more about Yono and the Celestial Elephants. Hallin spoke with us about the project’s development, what you can expect from the gameplay, how it’s inspired by Zelda, why the game is a fit on Switch including console exclusivity, and more. As a bonus, we have a rare screenshot from when Yono was originally imagined as a 2D title.

Much has been made about Switch icons over the past few months – particularly the way they look. Some system owners have been very vocal about the icons they feel just don’t look good. Snake Pass, LEGO Worlds, and SteamWorld Dig 2 are among the games players have requested to be changed.

I almost feel as though I’ve been living in an alternate reality watching this all unfold. Rather than focusing on what a quality game like SteamWorld Dig 2 is, some are instead fixated on that home menu icon. Personally, as long as I know which icon a game represents and the text is there, the actual design doesn’t matter much to me at all. But hey, I could be completely out of touch.

So let’s have a discussion about this. How important are Switch icons to you? I’m very curious as to how everyone feels about the topic since we haven’t covered it before, so share your thoughts with us below.

Highlights from last week’s topic: September 2017 Nintendo Direct reactions

Lichtspeer hinges on its own awareness of the nonsensical retro-techno Norse premise that it strikes the player with. “Achtung” it explains in a preface, “nothing you are about to see will make any sense.” This ancient Germanic spear-throwing game from a future perpendicular dimension is a load of nonsense – but it was intriguing. Just enough so to uncover a tight and surprisingly demanding score attack game.

The illustrious Dragon Ball franchise by the brilliant mind of Akira Toriyama still goes strong today over 30 years later thanks to its unforgettable characters, world, and expansions into realms of other media such as films, video games, and more, including its brand new anime follow-up Dragon Ball Super. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 takes the core concept and canon of the series and adds a twist to it, giving players a “what if” scenario by having them right the wrongs of altered history as a Time Patroller – a character which you’ll create before starting the game to serve as your primary avatar on your journey through time. Unlike other titles that have you reliving the show, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 feels like a fresh take on the series.

In what feels like an annual tradition now, Pokken Tournament will be making another debut following its initial 2015 release in arcades, then 2016 for Wii U, and now in 2017 on Switch. While the Wii U version was missing a few Pokemon from the arcade version for whatever reason, the game itself presented a fun and unique take on mixing great elements from Tekken and Soulcalibur and infusing them with the world of Pokemon. For fighting fans and Pokemon enthusiasts, it was a great game to own and add to your Wii U library, and, while not entirely robust, certainly kept the attention and fun for a while following its release. The Switch port, Pokken Tournament DX, aims to be the “deluxe”, or definitive, version of the game much like how Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is. But unlike Mario Kart 8 Deluxe where it felt like a genuine upgrade on Switch riding its way from the Wii U, Pokken Tournament DX fails to deliver any plausible reason to jump in for round 2 unless you didn’t own a Wii U or skipped out the first time around.

Minecraft stole the market for the kind of LEGO game that as a kid, I, and I’m sure many others dreamed of. LEGO was my go-to toy, but those bricks are expensive. It only takes one missing piece or one wrong brick color to throw a whole construction project off. At least for a kid who was a little too detail obsessed.